MILWAUKEE — Everybody was talking Monday about the big pitcher with the evil fastball. Ladies at the supermarket. Men on the radio. Even the clubhouse attendant took some ribbing for not hugging the guy when he arrived.

This was CC Sabathia’s housewarming party at Miller Park. All Ubaldo Jimenez did was spike the punch, muscling the Rockies to a nervy 4-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers that sloppy fielding nearly spoiled.

“We have played well at home and keep giving it all back. We have to prove ourselves out here,” said closer Brian Fuentes, whose Rockies snapped a six-game road losing streak. “This was big.”

While Sabathia created the buzz — the Brewers sold 9,500 tickets Monday, leaving a near-sellout for his debut tonight — Jimenez provided the electricity. He won on the road for the first time since Aug. 15, 2007, a streak spanning 12 starts. He went from “Uh-oh” to “Oh, my!” with chilling efficiency. His fastball topped out at 101 miles per hour. Any chance the Brewers had of hitting that pitch vanished when the 24-year-old began darting his curveball for strikes.

“I mean come on, that’s just unfair,” catcher Chris Iannetta said.

This outing conjured memories of last October when Jimenez mauled the Phillies and Diamondbacks. He retired 11 of the final 12 Brewers he faced, striking out seven over seven innings.

“It’s not about me. It’s about putting the team in a good place,” Jimenez said.

What made this outing different were his dimensions. Jimenez picked off two runners at first base. He has a great move — who knew? Obviously not the Brewers’ Ryan Braun and Corey Hart, Jimenez’s first victims since “probably Double-A,” conceded the right-hander with a smile.

Jimenez worked on his picks during a recent side session, focusing on quick feet and varying his times to the plate. He has been working on his hitting for months, evolving from a mannequin to a man with a plan. His sixth-inning groundball handcuffed third baseman Russell Branyan, scoring Jeff Baker.

Every run became significant when the eighth inning turned into a blooper reel. It started when Gabe Kapler reached on an error by first baseman Joe Koshansky.

“The ball nearly spun itself into the ground,” Koshansky said of the broken-bat floater.

Craig Counsell followed with a popup above home plate against reliable reliever Taylor Buchholz. Iannetta and third baseman Garrett Atkins converged — and watched the ball drop to the turf. Prince Fielder made the Rockies pay for their gaffes, his 17th home run shaving the deficit to 4-3. In between, a double-play groundball by Braun kept the Rockies from being buried.

With the crowd loud and on its feet, Manuel Corpas, in arguably his sharpest inning of the season, brought sanity to the eighth by retiring Branyan on a flyball to center. That left Fuentes to seal the Rockies’ biggest road victory to date.

The Rockies’ Mark Redman (2-3, 7.05 ERA) has pitched in the playoffs and won a World Series ring, so he knows about big games. But as regular-season matchups go, few can match the buzz of CC Sabathia (6-8, 3.83 with Cleveland) making his Brewers debut. Redman will try to use the Brewers’ impatience against them, working his cut-fastball for groundballs. Sabathia relies on heat, reaching 97 mph in the ninth inning on many occasions. He has a 2.16 ERA since April 22 and is tied with Toronto’s Roy Halladay for most innings worked in that span. Troy E. Renck, The Denver Post

Troy is a former Denver Broncos and Colorado Rockies beat writer for The Denver Post. He joined the news organization in 2002 as the Rockies' beat writer and became a Broncos beat writer in 2014 before assuming the lead role ahead of the 2015 season. He left The Post in 2015.

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